Tag Archives: 18-200mm

What’s not to love about your super zoom? You can quickly zoom from 18mm up to 300mm in a single twist of your wrist. Brands such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, Sigma and Tamron make exceptionally great quality lenses, some including image stabilization, giving pro glass a run for its money. Certain zooms like the Tamron 18-200mm, 18-250mm, 18-270mm and 28-300mm offer a macro feature allowing you to get closer to your subject, as compared to other brands. Now there is one common thread between all brands of super zooms and that’s zoom creep. The reason for this is the glass used in these lenses are significantly heavy. Pair this up with an easy to turn zoom ring and you’ve got an annoying case of zoom creep.

“Here is a scenario…” Picture yourself using your super zoom for a product shot. You’re setup on a tripod and have your lens adjusted to the proper distance from your subject, in this case a Tag Heuer Monaco watch. You setup your timer to take the shot and walk away. Then you look back to see that your lens has extended on it’s own weight, right into your subject, ruining your shot.

But wait…. Before you call your camera store to complain about a defective lens, you should ask them for a Lens Band instead. You simply place the Lens Band over your “zoom ring” and when you are ready to lock it in place, you simply slide the Lens Band over the non-moveable section of your lens. In our example using the Tamron 28-300mm lens, we slide the Lens Band toward the base of the camera. Problem solved…..

Lens Band comes in one size and fits all zoom lenses on the market today. Available in a variety of fun colors to choose from, you can personalize your lens and stop zoom creep for less than 5 bucks!!!! Lens Band is available at your local camera store or on our website http://lensband.com

I used a tight hallway as the DIY light box. I placed the subjects up against one wall and close enough to the back wall to have a good bounce. Two flashes were used, (first flash)SB-80DX set to optical trigger, on a boom pointing at the back wall, set to 1/2 power, (second flash- out of camera view in front of tripod) was a SB-28 triggered by pocket wizard, set up on the ground at 1/64th power to trigger my other flash and to give a little fill on the subject. For a quick and dirty two small flash setup, it got the job done.